Potterwatch: Underground Radio and the Voice of a Revolution'
by RosaLui
Summary: "'Potterwatch' was legitimized by its dedication to truth, capacity for serious discourse, and avoidance of reverse-propaganda. This separated it from other rebel media, such as the short-lived radio programme 'Up Voldemort's Arse' which spent several months insisting that Harry Potter was raising an army of dragons in Romania." - Snackleholt, Bingsley. "In A Time of Great Need."


**A/N:** The mixed media version is available on Ao3. :)

* * *

It is impossible to discuss counter-movements to the Occupied Ministry without mentioning Lee Jordan, primary creative influence behind the pirate radio programme _Potterwatch_. Best friend of Fred and George Weasley, his role in the war is often linked to participation in the student group Dumbledore's Army. However, Jordan's family has a long history of non-combative involvement in Wizarding conflicts (Wattleford, 2006).

Elisha al-Nasl was prominent in the movement against mounting anti- Muggle sentiment in the 1960's, and well-known at Witches For Muggles United before its shut-down in 1969 (Nott, 1982). Her name remained on a list of dissidents for a further twenty years. She was also arrested twice by the MLEP, though these records are not open for public viewing (Wizard Law Assoc).

In 1977, al-Nasl met controversial _Indie Wiz Wireless_ presenter Ross Jordan at a rally against the International Statute of Secrecy. They married within the year, named their son Lee, and Jordan went to work for the WWN, earning a dozen disciplinary marks before he quit in 1995 (WLA). In an unpublished interview with the _Daily Prophet_ , Jordan said he was "heavily inspired by Plimpy" (Cuffe 4), referring to the infamous political stations of the Global Wizarding War. The short-lived Plimpy FM ceased broadcast abruptly in 1942 upon attack by Gellert Grindelwald's supporters (Binns, 1955).

Lee Jordan also took after his Muggleborn grandmother, Ayesha al-Nasl. While Grindelwald controlled the European borders with an iron fist, al-Nasl disseminated information with a home printing press and slept with a list of resistance fighters sewn into her robes. According to family legend, her name appeared twice on Grindelwald's personal hitlist, under two different aliases; 'Magda' and 'River' (Jordan, 2010).

\- Snouttrout, Margaret M. _Prelude to the Resistance_. N.E.W.T.: History of Magic. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 2010.

* * *

 _Mum_

 _Wanted to get this to you before you heard on the wireless_

 _It's gran who says that before the war you could see stormclouds if you paid attention_

 _There's stormclouds gathering again mum, if you believe Potter which I do_

 _..Cedric Diggory died today._

 _(24 June 1995)_

* * *

Jordan and his cohorts often read statements from the _Daily Prophet_ or the WWN and picked them apart with unruffled good humor. Some jokes were cheap shots about the appearance and purported bad smell of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, while others roasted the competency, integrity, and hygiene of the "spineless" Ministry with episode titles such as, " _The Wizengamot is Full of Rot._ "

Yet the power of _Potterwatch_ was not only its ability to make listeners laugh during dark times. The show satirized all falsehoods spread by the Occupied Ministry and controlled media. The broad knowledge base shared by Jordan, Weasley, Weasley, and their guests enabled them to contradict and disprove much of the propaganda that kept the Wizarding population under heel. Their sources included _St Mungo's Journal, Proceedings of the South African Academy of Toordery, Spellology_ , and the _International Journal of Magics_. Particularly useful were Professor Sabella Solo-Sepulveda's oft-ignored yet conclusive findings on the similarities in Muggleborn and Wizarding physiology.

\- Wattleford, Bumbleby. "The Anatomy of a Show." _Potterwatch: Underground Radio and the Voice of a Revolution_. Hogsmeade: Widdershins, 2006

* * *

 _In Celebration of our Very First Test Broadcast!_

(and our Being very fucking Plastered)

 _Events Thus Far_

 _1) I show the lads the radio and George has gone, "Don't let dad see this, he'll take it apart."_

(he tried once but it stayed apart and mum uses it as a planter now)

 _2) The Melanion's Classic comes out as we attempt a script. Mum has excellent vodka._

 _3) Fred chugs half the bottle, makes little sense, decides we should wing it_

(enthralling listeners everywhere, which means one old man stuck on the loo in Devon and these cows here)

 _4) Transcript of broadcast is as follows:_

 ** _Thank you for choosing Quick Quotes Quill_ _TM_ _! In partnership with Arabella Rubb's Scrub-a-Dub-Dub_ _TM_ _!_**

 ** _L: Welcome, ladies, gents, and cows in this field._**

 ** _*faint mooing*_**

 ** _L: Today, in a shameless bit of Ministry pandering, the_ Daily Fuckfit _denied the return of You-Know-Who and denounced Harry Potter's account in the_ Quibbler _. I'd like our listeners -_**

 ** _G: Still mostly cows._**

 ** _L: - all right, I'd like our cows to join us in a moment of silence for the integrity of Wizarding media…_**

 ** _*silence*_**

 ** _L: But the reality is that You-Know-Who has been back for some time. Thoughts?_**

 ** _F: Thing is, what do we do when the Ministry won't step up? Sit around and wait for more people to start dying? Waste time in school - bugger._**

 ** _*alcohol spillage and muffled cursing*_**

 ** _F: As I was saying. There's people who say that this isn't our concern. That we're too young. Well, I say bollocks. This is our fight._**

 ** _L: Wise words. But how do we go about defeating the most powerful Dark Wizard that ever lived?_**

 ** _G: Well, getting our heads out of our arses is a good start._**

 ** _F: Some bloke named Heinlin, historian back in Grindelwald's time, said '_ Mighty little force is needed to control a Wizard whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free Wizard.'**

 ** _G: And what would you say to the people who think that ignorance equals safety?_**

 _ **F: That there are things worth dying for.** _

_6) Fun fact: Fred is a pretentious git and he is lucky we put up with him_

 _(2 April 1996)_

* * *

The tireless work of these amateur broadcasters was instrumental in the counter-war effort, and where they perhaps deserve the most praise is their encouragement of the magical community to protect both Muggles and each other. For Muggleborns, sympathizers, and their families, this outreach became a lifeline in the long months before the Ministry was retaken on 2 May, 1998.

Above all, _Potterwatch_ was legitimized by its dedication to truth, capacity for serious discourse, and avoidance of reverse-propaganda. This separated it from other rebel media, such as the short-lived radio programme _Up Voldemort's Arse_ which spent several months insisting that Harry Potter was raising an army of dragons in Romania.

\- Snackleholt, Bingsley. "In A Time of Great Need." _Wixen Politics Weekly_ 24 May 2002. Print.

* * *

 _edoi nc ew llib yrtnt sihe fp trao dnii nm sksis ytirucer wew htin!_

 _The Snatchers found us yesterday._

 _They wrecked the place (Stoat has just gone, "Damn shame, I liked the paint job," which is the problem with Death Eaters, they're rotten decorators). We left them rolling about the floor, no trouble, and their tentacles should go away but the smell, the lads assure me, will remain._

 _We've moved to a shack the size of a bread cupboard near Yas Yawonrotb._

 _Rodent is calling Romulus again, who is responsible for our codenames and is my favorite rosseforw flowerep (even if he has rather shite opinions about the Catapults). He's helping make our frequency untraceable. We've decided we'd rather not run into the Snatchers again on account of how they want to do us in._

 _sllemv tromedlos_

 _(24 November 1997)_

* * *

According to a 2005 Ministry survey, nearly a tenth of Wizarding Britain had listened to _Potterwatch_ 'at least once' by May 1998. The numbers soared with every new injustice or rumored sighting of Potter. On 8 December 1997, the _Daily Prophet_ published a smear piece on 'subversive and illegal medias,' trying to fight the steady rise of discontent and pro-Potter sentiment, and signaling the first serious crackdown on _Potterwatch_.

The problem of secrecy vs circulation would plague Jordan, Weasley, and Weasley throughout the war. Any widespread broadcast could catch the ears of those loyal to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named; any broadcast too small would be ineffective. It was the death of Glenda Chittock, the longest running host of the WWN at the time, that sealed the deal. Determined to stay on the air, the team at Potterwatch created a system of pass- words and pseudonyms to throw off the Snatchers and their ilk.

Credit for the code names goes to Remus Lupin, now famous as the first werewolf to teach at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and posthumous recipient of the Order of Merlin, First Class, for his role in the First and Second Wizarding Wars.

\- Wattleford, Bumbleby. "Snatchers and Snitches: Escaping Persecution." _Potterwatch: Underground Radio and the Voice of a Revolution._ Hogsmeade: Widdershins, 2006

* * *

 _Met him for the first time in ages today. Don't know how he climbed out of his mountain of grief, but the show needed a send-off._

 _We read the list_ _which was too damn long_ _and sat in silence,_ _no special tribute to Fr-_ _to the biting wit and steadfast courage of o- we_ _didn't mention the demiguise in the room. Our vacant third chair. Just signed off for the final time, names of our fallen carried skyward on the airwaves._

 _I still see stormclouds._

 _Ron and his friends got the Order of Merlin yesterday, and didn't show up for it but the Prophet pretended they did. Tilden Toots is back on the WWN, no mentions of his opportune vacation in Estonia (an honest oversight, I'm sure). The Wizengamot is stalling Death Eater trials._

 _We -_

 _I need to do something._

 _(1999)_

* * *

Jordan carries on in more legal fashion with the _Underground Wizarding Network_ (UWN), which is under his private ownership. No pirate station, the UWN is now one of the most trusted names in Wizarding media, and was called the 'voice of a generation' by Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt in 2004.

The UWN continues to purvey truth through humor, and features a revolving panel of commentators for in-depth analysis of hypocrisy and corruption in Wizarding politics. Indeed, Minister Shacklebolt is one of many politicians, singers, inventors, Quidditch stars, and law enforcement officials to grace the programme as a guest. Most recently it hosted members of the DRCMC as they announced the success of their House Elf Bill of Rights on its second pass through the Wizengamot. It is also the only media outlet outside the _Quibbler_ to inter- view Harry Potter within the last decade, as Auror Potter's usual reaction to the _Daily Prophet_ is rapid movement in the opposite direction.

[...]

Despite being criticized as a 'mouthpiece of Muggle propaganda' by the Pureblood Protection Association for his recent Order of Merlin nomination, Jordan insists that he's just "telling it like it is," and says that his favorite segment is still their weekly Quidditch recap.

\- Wattleford, Bumbleby. "The UWN and the Future." _Potterwatch: Underground Radio and the Voice of a Revolution._ Hogsmeade: Widdershins, 2006

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 **I adore feedback. :3**


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